Le Zebre

Overview

Jules Salomon worked as an engineer at Unic. In his spare time he designed a small car with a single-cylinder engine. Unic was not interested in the project but did offer to assist with building a prototype. The car ws financed by Jacques Bizet and Henri de Rothschild. This led to the birth of the new make 'Le Zebre', in 1909. In 1912 more than 1,000 Zebres were sold. Each car was fitted with a 600 cc single-cylinder engine. In 1912, two models with four cylinder engines were introduced. However, these were still small and above all cheap cars. The cars sold so well that the factory soon became too small and the company moved to Suresnes in 1913. Before the war, the Zebre had been an authority in the field, but the situation changed radically after the war. Demand for cheap cars was so high that factories were mushrooming out of the ground all over the place. In 1922, things went from bad to worse for Le Zebre.

In 1925, the company introduced a large car with a 2.0 litre four-cylinder side-valve engine and brakes on all four wheels. This model continued to be available until 1931. However, in the same year, the factory was forced to close.